Friday, April 2, 2010

Yesterday was a very uneventful day for me, until 10:30 PM. My son, E, called me on the phone. He lives here in town and is going to college, majoring in some sort of Geography where one does environmental planning for cities and towns.

I laughed to myself, thinking, "He really must think I'm naiive if he thinks he is going to pull one over on me tonight."
After a few words of greeting and small talk, I asked him if he thought he was going to try and get me for April Fool's, because I was ready for it. He said, "What? It's April Fool's? Oh, now you're really not going to believe me when I tell you what I'm about to tell you. I'll just call you back another time"
My curiosity got the best of me and I said, "Oh just go ahead and tell me."

After a long, pregnant pause he said, "I've been expelled from the University. I was in the administration office on Tuesday and these three guys started getting insulting with me, making fun of my Indiana State hat, and it escalated from there. I was having a bad day anyway, and I just couldn't handle these three f_____s messing with me like that, so I ended up breaking one guys nose, breaking a knee and laying out the third."

Why is that so believable? Because E. loves to fight. He does MMA throwdowns and just waits for anyone to even look like they want to fight. He would be in the fray in 2 seconds. He's a really good boy, but he has that little bit of extra testosterone in him that needs an outlet. If he had a girlfriend or something I'm sure he would settle right down. But no girlfriend, he's busy with school right now. ;) I've been surprised that he hasn't gotten into more trouble than he has. So far he had kept it down to a few late night escapades with paint ball guns, and one or two meetings in an empty parking lot, but nothing involving the law or disciplinary processes.

At this point I was still skeptical and rolling my eyes, but then he told me that his court date was May 15th and that he was probably, in addition to being expelled, looking at 6 months in jail. He told me that his roommate's dad was an attorney and would probably agree to represent him for a reduced rate and that he could probably get the sentence down to maybe a month, and that he could get it expunged later. As far as the University, he could probably enroll in the "other" university in town, although it doesn't have his major and he would totally lose this semester, that is just finishing up.

My despair began to set in and I started seeing a bleak outlook for my son, who I had such high hopes for. In addition to finishing up school, I also had hoped that he would serve a two year mission for our church. He is 21 right now, and the standard age for serving is 19. He has had braces until just this past month and that has made it impossible for him to go out at this time, as they don't allow missionaries to go out with braces. So he has just gone ahead and finished more school. With a police record and being expelled from school, a mission for the church would be next to impossible. They just don't let just anyone go out. You can't have felons out serving the Lord. They need to at least have their acts cleaned up!

My eyes started tearing up and I started telling him things like, "I KNEW that MMA throwdown stuff was bad. You start thinking you can take it outside the ring. Now look where it's gotten you. Are you on steroids? What the heck were you thinking? And this, after all my begging and pleading for you to keep yourself out of trouble...." I told him I had to go.

I told my husband what had happened and I was in tears because this was devastating to me.

Then the phone rang, and there was E. on the phone again. I prayed that he was gong to tell me, APRIL FOOL'S! !!!